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Readers Write In #111: “Pal pal har pal” from Lage raho Munnabhai is The definitive Hindi film song
(by Ankit Sinha) Cinema, plot and time, and why I think “Pal pal har pal” from Lage raho Munnabhai is The definitive Hindi film song “Pal pal..” is not just a great example of how to place film songs well in a narrative, but it can serve as the very image of the concept of […]
Happy 90th birthday, Lata Mangeshkar!
September 28, 2019
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/happy-90th-birthday-lata-mangeshkar/ The singer’s greatness is taken for granted (and rightly so), but is the “Lata era” still a thing? Or is it just for older listeners and nostalgists? Hema Mangeshkar. After 90 years, the name doesn’t just sound off, it sounds wrong, like calling a rainbow a […]
Readers Write In #93: 27 years of Rahman
August 27, 2019
(by Nirupama V) A.R Rahman’s music has always been a part of my life. I have an old CD that contains the video songs of Baba from when I was 4 years old that used to be played on our old Philips VCD player that doubled as a tape recorder. I vividly remember falling in […]
The contentious nature of the National Awards
April 14, 2018
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/the-contentious-nature-of-the-national-awards-baahubali-village-rockstars-sridevi/ Musings on the country’s most prestigious film awards – and this is not about whether X deserved to win over Y. Another year. Another set of arguments over the National Awards. For instance: Did Sridevi deserve Best Actress? Indeed, under normal circumstances, would her performance in […]
On being home-schooled in Tamil through the film song
March 15, 2018
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/southern-lights-home-schooled-tamil-film-song/ Paying attention to lyrics is a wonderful way to increase one’s proficiency in a language. (Added incentive: It’s fun too.) These days, a lot of the music I listen to comes from the phone. I just type in the name of a song I feel like listening […]
Ten from the heart
February 14, 2018
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/baradwaj-rangans-love-song-list-ten-heart/ In which I use a hi-tech method (okay, not so much) to come up with a list of love songs for Valentine’s Day.. Being asked to make a list (of songs, of films) for an occasion is one of the more nerve-wracking aspects of pop-culture writing. […]
Reviewing (and re-viewing) Rahman
November 2, 2017
Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/article/southern-lights-reviewing-and-re-viewing-rahman Thoughts on the ‘2.0’ soundtrack and its composer, who keeps going on and on and on. What makes AR Rahman tick? That’s the question I had while listening to the composer’s soundtrack for Shankar’s 2.0. This isn’t about how he manages to keep making music, 25 […]
A brief chat with AR Rahman…
March 14, 2017
This was done when AR Rahman was in town to release the music of ‘Lake of Fire’. We didn’t get much time with him, but we did get to tour his school. My favourite part of this experience is also least “professional” aspect. We barely got any time to set up, and I used a lapel […]
The A.R. Rahman fan club
March 5, 2017
livemint spoke to me about 25 years of Rahman, and a small portion of that chat has been reproduced in their latest weekend issue. Link:
Wakao!
July 2, 2016
A bit of a rant about how we keep dusting off the same set of “greatest hits” every time we want to remember a composer. It was RD Burman’s 77th birthday last Monday. Google honoured the composer with a doodle. Behind an illustration of RD that made him look like a round-faced schoolboy, there were […]
Ode to a nightingale
April 9, 2016
Reflections on the peerless P Susheela, who’s found her way into the record books. When I learnt that P Susheela had found her way into the Guinness Book of World Records and the Asia Book of Records for singing the most number of songs in Indian languages, there were two reactions. The first, a smile – […]
A few favourite things
March 12, 2016
Remembering the list song, 25 years after ‘Paththar Ke Phool’ gave us ‘Kabhi tu Chhalia lagta hai’. Some part of me dies every time a film from my school or college days celebrates a major anniversary – I’m talking about you, Paththar Ke Phool, now 25 years old – but this isn’t a how-time-flies- post. […]
Emotion capture
November 14, 2015
A quick trip through the nine moods – nava rasas – of the Indian film song. Which song would you pick as a depiction of Śṛungāram (Love)? There are hundreds. Abhi na jaao chhod kar, for instance. He’s saying don’t leave me yet, the heart hasn’t had its fill of you. She protests. It’s late. […]
A lover, a model and a nose
August 1, 2015
Remembering ‘jhankaar beats,’ the nineties, and ‘Aashiqui,’ which turned 25 this July. If you were the cassette-buying type in 1990, you probably remember this image. A white background with horizontal, equidistant lines – like a page from a ruled notebook. A boy and a girl in what appears to be an embrace – only, we […]
Any body cannot dance
July 11, 2015
With the dance-based ‘ABCD-2’ vaulting over the Rs. 100 crore barrier, a reflection on choreography in Hindi films down the ages. Had I been the kind who rated films, I’d have given Any Body Can Dance 2 (aka ABCD 2) two-and-a-half shrugs – but that’s not surprising. For one, this isn’t a film meant for […]
Women and song
February 4, 2015
So there’s a new Gautham Menon movie out this week. I look forward to his films, for two reasons mainly. One, to see the way the heroine has been shaped. I know. This is borderline-blasphemy considering it’s essentially an Ajith movie and all, but even in Menon’s big-star outings like Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu – the kind […]
Lights, Camera, Conversation… “Notes from a film-music fan”
March 28, 2014
A collection of thoughts on discovering Binaca Geetmala listings on the web. Imagine spending an afternoon falling through the Internet rabbit hole and finding, of all things, lists of songs that featured on Binaca Geetmala – from 1970 to 1980. Why just these years? Did the people who made these Wiki-pages not have the time to put […]
Lights, Camera, Conversation… “On the beaten path”
February 14, 2014
AR Rahman’s songs for “Highway” aren’t exactly groundbreaking – and no, that’s not an unjustified expectation when it comes to this composer. After a few listens to AR Rahman’s soundtrack for Highway, I must say I’m not terribly impressed. Let’s begin with Heera, which sounds vaguely like something Rahman used to do long ago – say, Putham […]
The Rahman Effect
October 8, 2011
After nearly 20 years in the business, is the Mozart of Madras likely to be concerned by the reactions to ‘SuperHeavy’ and ‘Rockstar’? We think not.
The Biscuit Shakers
July 29, 2011
English-speaking Hindi filmmakers are mangling the film song beyond recognition – not that there’s anything wrong with that.
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November 13, 2019
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